Bitcoin Witnesses Historic Whale Exodus: What You Need To Know

Bitcoin whales are witnessing a historic breakout. @CryptoVizArt, a senior researcher at Glassnode shed light on the significant changes within the whale cohort in a new analysis.

Bitcoin Whale Effect: Revealing The Numbers

In a remarkable revelation, the research highlights the great impact of whales on recent market activity. According to the data, “34% of selling pressure in the last 30 days was from Binance whales.” These influential entities have been instrumental in shaping the recent market dynamics.

In addition, the research also highlights a trend in whaling behavior: a noticeable decrease in the total balance of whaling entities on exchanges. In the last 30 days, the report states, “Whale Flow to Exchanges witnessed the largest monthly balance decline in history, hitting -148,000 BTC/month.” This dramatic decline marks a significant change within the whale cohort, raising interesting questions about their motives and strategies.

As the market witnessed the rally above $31,000, the inflow of whale funds to exchanges increased dramatically. Glassnode’s data reveals that whale inflow volumes have reached an impressive +16,300 BTC/day, signifying their active involvement in recent market movements. Notably, this whale reign accounted for 41% of all exchange inflows, which is comparable to both the LUNA crash (39%) and the FTX crash (33%).

During June and July, whale inflows supported an elevated inflow bias of between 4,000 to 6,500 BTC/day. Among all the exchanges, Binance has emerged as the main destination for whale inflows. The report reveals that around 82% of whale-to-exchange flows went to Binance. In contrast, Coinbase made up 6.8%, and all other exchanges made up 11.2%.

While the overall balance of whales may have declined, @CryptoVizArt’s analysis points to an interesting internal dynamic within the whale cohort. As some whales increased their balances, others experienced decreases. This phenomenon has led the researcher to introduce the concept of “Whale Redirection”, suggesting that not all whales follow the same strategy.

The examination of the whale cohort over the last 30 days shows that whales with more than 100,000 BTC recorded an increase of +6,000 BTC, whales with 10k-100k BTC decreased their account balance by -49.0k BTC and whales with 1k-10k BTC increased their account by 8k BTC by +33. However, overall, the whale group saw only -8.7k BTC in net outflows.

Remarkably, whaling entities now account for only 46% of the total supply, down from 63% at the beginning of 2021. Since the early days of Bitcoin, a steady downward trend can be observed.

Short-Term Holders: The Driving Force

The research also sheds light on the dominance of short-term owners (STHs) among the whaling units. The data indicates that STHs represent a significant part of recent trading activity, actively trading the market. This behavior is evident as market rallies and corrections lead to dramatic increases in profit or loss among this group.

Short Term Holder (STH) Dominance through Exchange Inflows exploded to 82%. This is dramatically above the long-term range over the past five years (typically 55% to 65%). “From this, we can make a case that much of the recent trading activity is driven by Whales active within the 2023 market and thus classified as STHs,” states the analyst, adding, “every rally and correction since the FTX drop has seen a 10k+ BTC increase in STH profit or loss, respectively.”

BTC whale transactions can therefore currently be a good indicator. However, special attention must also be paid to the STHs, which will eventually run out of bullets at some point.

At press time, the price of BTC stood at $29,203.

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